The Mirrors Next Victim
by HR always live on
Summary: A HP one shot. Snape and Dumbledore discuss the mirror or Erised. Set during Philosophers Stone.


**This is only my second attempt at HP fanfiction. I'm not very confident in it yet, so if you leave a review, good or bad, I'd be very grateful. Set early in Philosophers Stone.**

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><p>Dumbledore read the parchment letter that had just been delivered by one of the school owls, whom Fawkes did not seem to appreciate flying around in his office. Fawkes's tail feathers flared with fire as the screech owl vanished out the open window while Dumbledore was already halfway through the short note. He fed the note to the candle flame as soon as he'd finished it, then turning to the phoenix. "Fawkes, can you go and fetch Severus for me?" The phoenix dipped his head in a dignified manner before swooping out of the office, travelling through the Hogwarts halls, no doubt to the dungeons to collect the professor in question. In no time at all the door was opening and Severus came in.<p>

"You called?" he asked as Dumbledore's phoenix flew onto his masters shoulder, surveying Snape with a gaze eerily similar to his owner.

"Yes, the mirror I was after to guard the stone has arrived in the castle," Dumbledore said as he stroked his pet.

"Surely there are better places to keep the stone safe than the school," Snape replied as he sat down.

"I knew someone was going to try and steal it from Gringotts last summer," Dumbledore replied with his blue eyes twinkling. "It isn't safe anywhere but I would rather it somewhere I can keep an eye on it. I have explained this to you before Severus."

"Just because we're guarding it doesn't mean its safe," Snape said accurately.

"What would you have me do?" Dumbledore asked. "Anyway, its not public knowledge that its hidden in the castle. I didn't call you to discuss the stone at any rate. We've already discussed that at length. I remember your… shall we say, interest in the mirror when I suggested borrowing it. Its in a disused classroom on the third floor if you want to… examine it at your leisure."

"Thank you," Snape said shortly. "Was that all?"

"Yes. It'll be there for a few weeks."

"You're not moving it to guard the stone straight away?" Snape asked surprised. "I would have thought that was the main reason it's here."

"I have my reasons," Dumbledore replied quietly with the steely look in his eyes that Snape knew was pointless arguing. "How is Harry settling in?"

"You don't like my opinions on that subject," Snape replied shortly. Then added another sentence before he could stop himself. "He's exactly like his arrogant, lazy and self obsessed father."

"Do you think you might be slightly biased against him because of your dislike for James when you were at school?" Dumbledore asked with a slight hint of amusement behind his eyes which Snape did not find helpful in the slightest.

"I cannot bear to see him," Snape admitted slowly. "He is the image of his father."

"Have you looked him in the eye yet?" Dumbledore asked as Fawkes left his masters shoulder and flew out of the open window, vanishing through the thick grey clouds. "His eyes are his mothers. You look at him, and I can guarantee you will see Lily."

"I do not need your advice. If there was nothing else?"

"That was all," Dumbledore said simply.

"See you at dinner headmaster," Snape replied, turning and leaving his office. Dumbledore sighed.

"You are a fool to trust him Albus," said a portrait on the wall. He turned and saw that it was Armando Dippet.

"I have my reasons and I know where his loyalties are, thank you," Dumbledore replied shortly.

"Your mistake to make."

"Yes, thank you Phineas," Dumbledore replied and the portraits fell silent at his tone.

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><p>It was past two in the morning by the time Snape started to move around the castle, looking for the famed mirror or Erised. He wanted to be sure no one was lurking around and there were a lot off students who had a bad habit of it. Especially Fred and George Weasley who thought school rules were beneath them. It didn't take long for him to find it. He'd been living in the castle for too long. He locked the door behind him after making sure the room was empty of ghosts or God forbid, Peeves. He took a breath and approached the mirror. As he was walking up to it, he only saw himself reflected in the poor moonlight floating through the window. When he stood directly in front of it, he saw his reflection wasn't the only one there. He had half hoped and half feared for her image, but seeing Lily Potter's form smiling at him stopped his heart for a few seconds.<p>

By the time he recovered himself he saw that she looked younger than he would have imagined. Much younger. She couldn't have been more than fifteen in her reflection. The age where her beauty had become even more pronounced. Her red hair was trailing down her body, almost reaching to her waist. Her green eyes were shining at him when suddenly she turned, as if someone Severus couldn't hear was calling her. He watched as another figure appeared. It took a few seconds but then he saw himself as he had been twenty years ago. A gangly nervous teenage boy who was bullied by everyone. Who no one as beautiful as Lily Evans would ever want to be with.

And yet, as he watched Lily's face brightened with happiness. The teenage Snape approached her and gently kissed her, as if he'd been doing it forever. As if it was the most normal thing in the world. Lily's eyes sparkled as she looked at him and then she let out a high and truly happy laugh which he couldn't hear, except in his memory. It had been far too many years since he'd genuinely heard it. After he insulted her at school… called her a mudblood, she never laughed like that in front of him ever again. Entirely his own fault. A meaningless, pointless thing said to hurt her in the heat of the moment, and it had done its job spectacularly. From that moment Lily belonged to James Potter. He had driven her to someone else, and the thought sickened him. But he was wasting time. He hadn't seen Lily's face in eleven years, he couldn't afford to waste it.

Before he'd taken in his fill of her, the image in the mirror changed. He was about to moan in frustration, when what he saw stopped his heart for the second time that night. A Lily who was the same age he was now was lying in bed asleep, her bright hair in youth fading to a slightly lighter shade. The mirror version of himself was lying in bed asleep too when a girl of about eleven with short and vivid red hair came into the room, a piece of parchment trapped tightly in her hands. She woke them both up waving the parchment happily in the air, and the real life Snape could see the Hogwarts crest on the letter. It didn't take much to work out this was the fictional daughter he may have had in another world, and that she was holding her Hogwarts acceptance letter. Lily kissed the girls head as she ran out of the room, clearly happier than she had ever been in her life before. The mirror Snape smiled as Lily rolled over and kissed him good morning. The real Snape was riveted by the images he was seeing, feeling both happy and horrifically sad that this life, this chance at happiness had been taken away from him. The mirror images stilled and Snape knew that this was the time to leave. What he had seen in the mirror would haunt him for months, if not years and staying any longer was just prolonging the inevitable.

"Goodbye Lily," he whispered at the image as he walked away. "I'll keep your son safe. I promise." He whirled from the room with his black cloak swishing behind him. But he never forgot those images in the mirror of Erised. It would haunt him until his dying day.

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><p><strong>Opinions?<strong>


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